This disclosure relates generally to wildlife feeding devices and more particularly to portable deer and livestock feeders.
There are various feeder devices, some of which are small and some being larger commercial type feeders. The large feeders store hundreds of pounds of feed such as grain for self-feeding deer and livestock in the field. Such large feeders are stationary and are kept outdoors so that they can be accessed by deer and cattle. The feeders have a gravity type feeding structure which typically gravity feeds the grain, such as corn or other suitable feed, from a storage bin or hopper to a plurality of chutes which conduct the grain to an opening in a terminal end of each chute which is easily accessed by the deer and livestock.
Periodically, these large stationary storage bins must be refilled but because of their prohibitive size and weight, the grain is transported to the feeders. This process involves transporting a portable refill hopper to a feed store and positioning the refill hopper under a large elevated grain storage device. The portable refill hopper is refilled by gravity feeding the grain from the elevated grain storage device and then transporting the portable refill hopper back to the location of the feeders. A large and powerful (and expensive) blower device is then used to draw the grain from the portable refill hopper and blow the grain into the stationary feeder via flexible conduits.
It can be seen from the above description that it would be of benefit if an alternative device provided a method for refilling the large commercial feeders which was less expensive and less time consuming.